Locals up in arms as woman digs trench around forest reserve

Residents of four villages in Mpenja Sub-county, Gomba District, have protested a move by businesswoman Sarah Birungi to dig a trench around Nakelele Central Forest Reserve.
They claim that the trench will hinder their access to the forest that has a spring well that many households use.
The affected villages include Mpanga, Kisaaka, Kwanga and Buwanguzi.
Mr John Bosco Ssegirinya, the chairperson of Mpenja Sub-county, said Ms Burungi did not inform the local leadership before digging the trench, which he added is a threat to children and animals.

“We just saw an excavator digging a deep trench around the forest land with the intention of denying residents access to the forest. If children or elderly people fall in that trench and die, she [Burungi] will solely be responsible,” he said on Monday.
Mr Ssegirinya said about 100 residents were growing crops on the forest land.
“Her [Birungi] agents first cut down the indigenous trees which she replaced with eucalyptus. I doubt whether that is what they agreed with National Forestry Authority (NFA ),” he said.
 The Daily Monitor has learnt that Ms Birungi acquired the land from NFA under the collaborative forest management programme. 
More than 100 other private tree planters have so far acquired land in the central forest reserves to venture into commercial tree growing dealing in eucalyptus and pine.
Mr Charles Lukubo Kyasanku, the Gomba resident district commissioner, said they would convene a meeting to resolve the wrangle.

“Residents should be allowed to access their gardens and the water source. The investor doesn’t own that forest, she is just renting part of it for tree growing,” he said in a telephone interview yesterday.
Mr Geoffrey Kiviiri, the Gomba District chairperson, faulted the investor for digging what he called “a dangerous trench around the forest reserve”.
“When I was there, the community members informed me that two of their cows fell into the trench and suffered broken legs. This couldn’t have happened if the investor was cooperating well with residents,” he said in a telephone interview. 

Response
Ms Birungi said the trench was to stop residents from stealing her trees. She also denied claims that there is a water source inside the forest.
“That forest is neighboring a wetland, those people [residents] encroached on it and planted their crops, may be that is what they call a water source. They are also stealing my trees. So, I had to put boundary protection to stop trucks from entering the forest,” she said.

Forest cover
Nakelele Central Forest Reserve is among the 17 forest reserves in Gomba District. 
Forest and woodland cover in Uganda stands at 49,000 km² ( 24 percent) of the total land area. 
Over the recent years, large tracts of forest reserves have been cleared and President Museveni has on a number of occasions publicly expressed displeasure at the performance of NFA, saying it is doing little to protest the forests. 
Uganda’s Vision 2040 targets the restoration of the country’s forest cover from 15 percent in 2010 to 24 percent.